Earlier hockey fan Kate lost to hubby Prince William during a tour of Sweden today – in the latest bout of the couple’s sporting rivalry.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge donned bobble hats in freezing temperatures and had a crack at local favourite bandy hockey – played on ice with a ball instead of a puck.

When the couple later visited ArkDes, Sweden’s national centre for architecture and design in Stockholm, Ikea’s head of design Marcus Engman said they told him the flatpack furniture was in Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s rooms.

He said the duke and duchess were very interested in both home furnishings and how the design process works at Ikea: “They also revealed that they have Ikea pieces for the children’s rooms.”

Mr Engman said: “I’m proud that we can suit everybody. That’s what we want Ikea to be – for the many people of the world, both royalty and ordinary people.”

He added they began by offering their condolences on the death of the firm’s founder Ingvar Kamprad who died at the weekend aged 91.

During their tour of ArkDes, the duke tried out a rocking stool designed by Hemmo Honkonen, 29, which makes a musical whistle when it moves back and forth, part of a project to combine his twin interests of furniture and musical instruments.

William was presented with a personalised hockey jersey as he watched the game

And Kate could have her work cut out for her, as Victoria is a Yale graduate in politics, conflict resolution and international peace-building who speaks four languages fluently and has even done basic military training.

Sweden is an EU member state and Britain’s departure from the union is sure to come up during the visit – so she will need to be well armed for challenging chat.

They will then go to an event celebrating the best of Swedish design where they will IKEA bosses still reeling from the death of their founder Ingvar Kamprad.

In the evening they will have dinner at the British ambassador’s house with Swedish royals.

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